Ahh, the mighty Imperial Star Destroyer,
the mainstay of the Imperial Fleet. This kit is pretty good, it's big,
somewhat accurate and can look quite nice with some detailing work. This
kit has quite a few pieces, almost all of them superstructure. You sort
of have to box out the different parts of the superstructure to build
them. It's not overly difficult, you just have to make sure they are square
and fit right onto the upper hull half.

Speaking of the superstructure detail, it looks good,
but is wrong. That's why you see a second buildup where I went all out
detailing the kit as well as lighting it. I spent several months cutting
literally thousands upon thousands of teeny tiny pieces of sheet styrene,
rod, strip and various kit parts to detail out the kit. The result is
quite nice. It's not 100% accurate. That was never the intention; only
to beef up the existing detail and make it look nicer than the stock kit.
In addition to the detailing, the side walls were trimmed down as well
as the engine area, the guns were replaced with some parts from the Arvey
Model Products Turbolaser kit, and the globes were made from some
glass beads and fiber optic strands. I also scratchbuilt a little Rebel
Blockade Runner that snaps right into a crane I built up inside the main
hangar bay.

I also added lights to the kit. More on this can
be seen in my Fiber Optically Lit Star Destroyer
page. Just under 1,000 points of light throughout the ship, as well as
all seven engines, give the model a great finishing touch when the lights
are turned out.

The kit was painted with a dark gray primer from
Polly Scale called Bar Gray. I then dusted the model in various coats
of Polly Scale White. In between the dustings I masked off small panels
to make some variation in the coloring. It's difficult to see in the pics,
but adds significantly to the overall look. I then finished the kit off
by adding some streaks and general weathering with some charcoal dust
on a brush. The kit was sealed with Polly Scale Matte.

Overall the kit is not bad. It can obtained quite
cheaply. I got mine for about $5 originally. With some elbow grease, it
can really shine.